Glamorous parties and sinister secrets weave throughout a postwar prohibition on magic in this dark, lush first fantasy from British novelist Francesca May, who also writes suspense novels as Fran Dorricott (The Lighthouse).
As May's alternate-history England recovers from the strain of a magical war, Annie Mason travels to the fabled Crow Island. Magic is illegal following the war, but rumor says that real magic is alive on the island and "wealth seeped from the place like honey." Annie's father, who left their family for the island when Annie was a baby, has died, and his final wish was that she sell his belongings. Lured by much-needed inheritance money, Annie journeys to the island, where she reunites with childhood friend Bea. She also becomes overwhelmingly drawn to Emmeline, a stunning witch who wears impeccable menswear and throws glitzy soirees with illegal magical liquor. However, Bea's fairy-tale marriage to a rich, handsome man has a dark side, and Emmeline and her magic are clearly at the center. Annie's quest for the truth will become a fight for their lives.
May envisions a time similar to the Roaring Twenties in Britain with the U.S. policy of Prohibition added, with bright young things drawn to outlawed witchcraft rather than alcohol. Shades of Fitzgerald occasionally thread into the narrative: Emmeline is the Gatsby of the piece, with her extravagant parties and hidden pain; sheltered Annie the Carraway. The romantic and necromantic Wild and Wicked Things lives up to its title. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads